0.15.1 Draconian autoconf behavior

[Stef Walter]

On 02/05/2013 07:17 PM, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 0.5.1 has a rather unfriendly autoconf behavior:
> 
> * Hard failure if libtasn1 cannot be located by pkg-config unless
>   --without-libtasn1 is set
> * Hard failure if libtasn1 cannot be located by pkg-config unless
>   --disable-trust-module is set on top of --without-libtasn1.

Hmm indeed.

> Is it intended behavior that setting two autoconf options is required for
> building p11-kit without libtasn1?

No. But what is intended that most packagers do not treat this as an
optional dependency. libtasn1 is an optional dependency for places like
building on win32 and such.

> I could try to provide a patch which is a litle bit more friendly. -
> No hard failure unless the user has requested something on the
> commandline that cannot be done: E.g. hard-failure if
> --enable-trust-module is set explicitely but libtasn1 is not
> available. 

Yes, this would be perfect. A patch would be great. But I still would
like to fail when libtasn1 is not available and --without-libtasn1 is
not specified.

> But OTOH if the user has not set --enable-trust-module or
> --disable-trust-module simply check for tasn1 and if it is not
> available bulild without, instead throwing an error.

I don't want anyone to accidentally disable the libtasn1, as important
functionality would be lost. Disabling the libtasn1 dependency should be
a last resort.

Another dependency on libffi is coming. Again it's optional but just
barely. Important stuff is disabled if it's not available.

I've examined these dependencies carefully. They have no other
dependencies besides libc themselves, and are necessary for some of the
stuff we've been discussing on the list.

Cheers,

Stef